


Ache

by JoeyMalfoy



Series: After the Fall [1]
Category: Hannibal (TV)
Genre: Coda, Episode: s03e13 The Wrath of the Lamb, First Kiss, Hurt/Comfort, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-31
Updated: 2015-08-31
Packaged: 2018-04-18 08:18:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,564
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4698875
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JoeyMalfoy/pseuds/JoeyMalfoy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Post 3x13, coda. Will and Hannibal fall... and survive.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Ache

**Author's Note:**

> It’s nothing original really, given all the post-finale stories blossoming right now, but I had to write it or my emotions would have killed me. Let’s just say it was very cathartic. 
> 
> English is my second language so I’m very sorry for any mistakes. It is the first story I’ve ever written in English, so please bear with me.

"It's beautiful", he said.

And it was. It was so beautiful. He was alive, even more so than that time with Randal Tier. His heart was rushing blood out of his cheek and shoulder and chest and each breath brought a new level of pain and everything was dancing in semi-darkness before his eyes, but he had never felt so alive in his entire life. Even Hannibal's body was dancing and shaking, but Will held onto him, he pressed his head to his chest and he could hear his heart, too, steadier than his but fast, so fast, too fast. Hannibal's arms were trembling around him and Will pressed even harder, Hannibal's breath was on his forehead and he felt so connected to him right now, so much more connected than he had ever felt to Molly, even that night just after their honeymoon when they had shared wine and stories from their past and then they had made love and Will had seen stars because his empathy had made him feel her pleasure just as much as his own. Right now it seemed as if he had only dreamed of Molly and her soft lips and caring hands had never really been on him, and she had never embraced him like Hannibal was right now, not like that, never like that.

He felt alive and great and he hated himself for it, for all of it, for ever wanting anything remotetly close to this. He clung to Hannibal even more tightly, closing a hand on his shoulder, and he wished there was another way, a way for him to be with Molly and not crave anyone but her, he wished Hannibal was the one that felt like a dream and not the opposite, he wished he had never tasted blood, he wished all of this was gone - the house the blood the dragon’s corpse Hannibal him all gone, and so he wraped his arm around Hannibal's neck and pushed. He pushed just a little, but it was enough. They were falling and it was beautiful.

Will knew they would not survive this. He knew they were plunging to their death, and yet he still felt more alive than ever. For a second he imagined their bodies hitting the water hard and getting separated, he saw in a flash Hannibal being torn away from him sinking while he himself was floating and so he crushed their bodies together as much as he could, he wraped his arms around the other man until they ached. And then he felt the tears on his cheeks, his and maybe Hannibal's too. He had not felt them before because of all the blood but they might have been there all along. And now there were too many of them to ignore, tears were dancing around them and soon they would blend in with the waves.

_"Is Hannibal… in love with me?"_

_"Could he daily feel a stab of hunger for you, and find nourishment at the very sight of you? Yes. But do you ache for him?"_

"I do", Will said to the wind and Hannibal's chest. "Hannibal, I -"

But then there was water and darkness and Will could not breathe.

***

It was not Hannibal's voice that woke him. It was not the light either, even though it was close and he could feel its heat beneath his eyelids. It was the pain. Not the pain of his most recent wounds - it sure felt like his jaw was about to crack open, but it was a different kind of pain what woke him. It was something in his stomach, a feeling similar, way too similar, to the burning of Hannibal’s knife opening him up. He remembered the blood flowing and his consciousness fading, only now the blood had stopped and he was not fading, he was awaking, he was being reborn, and his lungs filled with air too much air at once and his eyes snapped open and he was gasping and shaking.

"Will."

Hardly a whisper, but it stopped the shaking.

It took a while before Will's eyes finally focused, and then Hannibal's face was there. His skin very pale, his lips red from all the blood that still clung to the little cracks, Dolarhyde's blood, his own, maybe a bit of Will's as well.

"Hannib-"

Will could not talk without an explosion happening in his head. He closed his eyes, hoping to push away the burning.

"Don't speak", Hannibal whispered.

A finger brushed his forehead, curling around a strand of damp hair. He opened his eyes again and met Hannibal's. Funny how his were the only eyes he could stand staring at, actually _enjoyed_ staring at, when he could still barely hold his own wife's gaze for more than a few seconds.

Will tried to sit up but that almost made him cry out in pain. He thought about that time in Florence and tried to figure out which out of the gunshot or the stabbing was the worst, and he also wondered if Hannibal had touched him now the way he had back then, with such attention and care, when he had bandaged his wounds.

Hannibal put one hand on his waist, the other on his good shoulder and helped him up. Will was sitting now, panting and sweating and he could see Hannibal was in no better shape, fresh blood was starting to stain his shirt. It was a clean shirt, not the one that had been through the fight and the waves. Will realized he also was wearing something clean and new. He looked around and saw he was in an unfamiliar bedroom with Hannibal sitting on the edge of the bed beside him.

"Where are we?"

His voice was rough and dry.

"A cottage. I imagine the owners have gone for the season."

Will wondered how long Hannibal had had to drag them in the water and then on the ground to get to this place. He had no memory of it, only feelings.

"We were supposed to die."

And yet as he said it, he couldn't help but smile that they didn't. They were supposed to die, yes, there was no denying that, it was beyond logic that they had survived, both of them, with all the blood loss and the cold waves and everything. But they had survived, and they were together now, and Will felt alive and relieved, so relieved as he stared at those brown eyes again, those warm eyes that could never go cold for him.

"Is that what you wanted, Will? For us to die?"

"Are you in love with me?"

He had not planned on asking the question. He knew the answer, had known for a while even before Bedelia confirmed it for him, and really what difference did that make at this point? But the words were out anyway and Will could feel his heart pounding in anticipation and the throbbing in his mouth was more intense than ever.

Hannibal cupped his cheek then, his undamaged one, and he caressed Will just below the ear with his thumb. Will leaned into the touch but fought the urge to close his eyes and let go because he wanted to see Hannibal's answer as much as he wanted to hear it, and then Hannibal smiled and it was a small thing, just a slight curve of his lips but it made his eyes even warmer and _so very beautiful._

"Yes."

Just "yes", no complicated allegory or extract from a poem, no long speech about the different meanings of love or how he had never felt as strongly for anyone else before, just a simple "yes" and he meant it, Will could feel how much he meant it, he meant it so much it almost broke Will's heart, it made his head spin and his whole body ache, it was more painful than the stabbing and the shooting and the falling and the drowning. He felt like he was dying and being reborn all at once, he wanted so much and so little.

Without thinking about it and yet while thinking about all of it, Will put his hand on Hannibal's, the one that was still on his cheek, and he pulled. He didn't pull much more than he had pushed before, but it was enough and Hannibal came closer, close enough for Will to brush his lips against his. And suddenly, somewhere in the midst of all the pain and the blood and the death, he felt like everything was OK. He did not need to think about what if and what when, he just needed this, Hannibal, his lips, his touch, his breath, his beating heart beneath his hand and that soft noise he made when Will opened his lips and welcomed his tongue in. Hannibal's hand was now on the back of his neck and he deepened the kiss, he pressed his lips harder just like Will had pressed his head against his chest earlier, and then both Hannibal's hands were in his hair and Will's were on his back pulling him in, closer and closer still.

"It hurts."

It was a moan, halfway between pleasure and pain, and he was not sure if he was talking about his wounds or his feelings for Hannibal.

"I know", came Hannibal's reply "it hurts me too."

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! Again... sorry for any mistakes, and long live Hannigram!


End file.
